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| + | **[[start|<< Up]]** | ||
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| ====== History ====== | ====== History ====== | ||
| + | ---- | ||
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| + | ===== Overview ===== | ||
| <code> | <code> | ||
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| </code> | </code> | ||
| - | main problems of knowledge: | + | ===== Problems of Knowledge ===== |
| * evidence is liable to __forgery__, | * evidence is liable to __forgery__, | ||
| - | * "a" story, because history is liable to __bias__: every historian must be writing from some perspective -- | + | * "a" story, because history is liable to __bias__: every historian must be writing from some perspective, has to make some __selection__ from all the evidence and sources available --\\ \\ |
| - | + | * e.g. even writing about the Roman Empire, a British historian in1900, during the colonial time, will write differently from a modern American historian;\\ \\ | |
| - | * e.g. even writing about the Roman Empire, a British historian in1900, during the colonial time, will write differently from a modern American historian;\\ | + | |
| * so historians have a responsibility | * so historians have a responsibility | ||
| * to avoid presenting a one-sided view, | * to avoid presenting a one-sided view, | ||
| * to make it clear where they stand. | * to make it clear where they stand. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===== Why We Study History ===== | ||
| + | |||
| + | ... either as individuals or as a society: | ||
| + | |||
| + | * "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" (George Santayana) | ||
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| + | * For a person, a family or a people to have a sense of identity. | ||
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| + | * For pleasure: we enjoy (writing and) reading stories -- //cf.// not only academic history, but also the many historical novels. | ||
| + | |||
| + | * "The proper study of mankind is man" (Alexander Pope) -- but how can we know what man is capable of, if we do not know what man has done? | ||